A Voice for the Voiceless

Gambia: Six Journalists Jailed for Criticizing the President

By Dahee Nam
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Africa

BANJUL, Gambia – Six Gambian journalists were jailed for two years on Thursday for publishing a statement criticizing the president.  They were convicted of six counts of defamation and sedition.

Those convicted include three executive members of the Gambian Press Union, two reporters from The Point newspaper, and one from Foroyaa newspaper.  One of the journalists for The Point also contributed to Reuters.  The journalists were sentenced to two-year prison term and heavy fines after criticizing President Yahya Jammeh’s declaration that the government was not responsible for the 2004 death of prominent journalist Deyda Hydara.

Hydara, the editor and co-founder of The Point and the Gambia correspondent for Agence France-Presse, was killed by unidentified gunmen in his car on the outskirts of the capital city of Banjul in December, 2004.  He was also a member of Reporters Without Borders, which advocates freedom of the press.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the sentencing was a “politicized judgment,” saying that it “reflects a partisan judicial system controlled by the president.”

Gambia is regularly criticized for violating press freedom.  President Jammeh warned journalists last month against tarnishing Gambia’s image.

“Any journalist who thinks that he or she can write whatever he or she wants and go free, is making a big mistake. … If anybody is caught, he will be severely dealt with,” Jammeh said in a television interview.

“Nobody can write or say anything that does not favor Yahya Jammeh and his government. The few people who do it have been sentenced to jail or have been arrested or have been harassed, some of whom are not even journalists.  Even thought it’s the six journalists who have been sentenced to jail, it’s the whole issue of expression that is now dead, so to speak. That is now in a very serious situation,” Gambian journalist Amie Joof said.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Gambia Media Jail Terms ‘Unjust’ – 07 August 2009

Guardian – Six Journalists Jailed in Gambia – 07 August 2009

VOA – Six Gambian Journalists Jailed for Sedition – 07 August 2009

AFP – Six Gambian Journalists Jailed for Criticising the President – 6 August 2009

Ethnic Tensions Lead to Clash in Algeria

By Ann Flower Seyse
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

ALGIERS, Algeria– After a brief argument between a migrant Chinese worker and an Algerian store owner over the parking space in front of the Algerian’s store a brawl broke out between about one hundred Algerians and migrant Chinese.

Many people wielded knifes and bludgeons. The parties dispersed after the local police showed up with an ambassador. Ten people were injured in the dispute, and two Chinese stores were looted according to an unnamed official at the ministry of foreign affairs.

The attack took place in the Bab Ezzour district in the eastern part of Algiers. An estimated 35,000 migrant Chinese workers live in Algeria. An estimated 8,000 work in the building sector, according to Agence France Presse.

Tensions have existed since the migrant workers came to Algeria. During the recent economic downturn, many Algerians blame the migrant workers for taking jobs that would otherwise go to Algerians, increasing tensions.

Additionally, the June 26 brawl between Uighur Muslim Chinese and ethnic Han Chinese stirred more negativity against the Chinese. Al Queda in the Islamic Mahgreb, or AQIM threatened revenge for their fellow Muslims that were injured in that attack. After this threat the Chinese embassy encouraged it’s citizens living in Algeria to exercise caution.

China is hoping that this attack is an isolated incidence, and is waiting for Algeria to take any necessary action. Given China’s extensive economic interests in Algeria, with multiple engineering contracts, and a stake in Algeria’s eleven billion dollar highway project, they will be hesitant to tell their citizens to abandon their jobs and come home.

For more information, please see:

Afrik- Xenophobia against Chinese on Rise in Africa – 5 August 2009

China Daily- 10 Chinese Injured in Clash with Algerians – 5 August 2009

BBC – Chinese Migrants in Algiers Clash – 4 August 2009

Reuters- Factbox: China’s Economic Interests in Algeria – 4 August 2009

North Korea Releases Two U.S. Journalists

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – Two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, have been released by North Korea after former U.S. President Bill Clinton made an unannounced visit to North Korea to negotiate the journalists’ release. 

Journalists released by nk Laura Ling and Euna Lee leaving North Korea (Source: APTN)

Clinton met with top North Korean officials, and “expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it.”  North Korean leader Kim Jong Il then issued an order which granted special pardons to the two American journalists from their 12-year labor camp sentences. 

North Korean News Agency (NKNA) announced that the pardon was “a manifestation of the DPRK’s humanitarian and peace-loving policy,” adding that Clinton’s visit “will contribute to deepening the understanding between the DPRK and the U.S. and building the bilateral confidence.”  NKNA also said Clinton apologized on behalf of the women and relayed President Barack Obama’s gratitude.

The two journalists were arrested back in March while working near the border between North Korea and China.  Thereafter, they were sentenced in June on charges of entering the country illegally.  Since then, the U.S. has been working on their release through Sweden since the U.S. and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations.  The U.S. State Department was also working with the North Korean Mission to the UN for the journalists’ release by asking that North Korea grant the women amnesty.

The families of Ling and Lee are “overjoyed” by the news of the pardon.  They have posted a statement on their website thanking Clinton, the U.S. State Department and President Obama for their efforts in getting the two women released.  Ling’s father, Doug Ling, described today as “one of the best days in my life” after hearing that his daughter has been released.

The two journalists flew out of North Korea with Clinton and are en route to Los Angeles where they will be reunited with their families.

For more information, please see:

BBC – North Korea pardons US reporters – 4 August 2009

CNN – U.S. journalists head home from North Korea – 4 August 2009

MSNBC – North Korea frees 2 jailed U.S. journalists – 4 August 2009

India to Execute 2003 Bombing Suspects

By Alishba I. Kassim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NEW DELHI, India -The debate over the death penalty has emerged in India after three people were found guilty for the 2003 bombing in Mumbai. During this shocking attack, over 50 people were killed and around 180 were injured. The defendants, Ashrat Ansari, Haneef Sayyed, and his wife Fahmeeda, have been sentenced to death, as Judge MR Puranik presiding over an anti-terrorist court claimed they “should be hanged by the neck until dead”.

The defendants’ lawyers will appeal the conviction; Haneef Sayyed’s counsel has reasoned that a life sentence without parole would be just and his wife’s lawyer claims that Fahmeeda unwillingy participated in the attacks due to pressure from her husband. However, the chief public prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam, said that anything less than capital punishment would be a “mockery of justice”. Interestingly, the death penalty is not a common punishment in India, and tends to be either postponed for long periods of time or commuted.

The three defendants practice Islam, and have declared that their attacks were a response to the violence against Muslims in Gujarat the previous year. They are supposedly connected to the dreaded Lashkar-e-Tayyiba group, which conducts attacks against India in opposition to its occupation in Kashmir. The group was banned in Pakistan after 9/11, and has been held responsible for numerous acts of terrorism in India, as well as linked to the three-day attacks in Mumbai last November. Pakistan has now increased its search for those responsible for the attack, asking Interpol to step in as well. The defendants have denied all allegations about their suspected involvement with the group.

For more information, please see:

BBC – India to Execute Bomb Trio – August 6, 2009

CNN – Pakistan Launches Global Manhunt for Mumbai Suspects –    August 6, 2009 

BBC – India and the Death Penalty – August 4, 2009  

Rape Used As Weapon of War

By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

GOMA, DR Congo – In the rape capital of the world rape is being used as a weapon of war and instances of this atrocity have recently increased.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has reported that rapes are committed by both militias and police and military officers.  Ten percent of rape cases involve male survivors, according to the ABA sexual violence clinic in Goma.

Male rape is on a sudden incline since the joint military operations between Congo and Rwanda rebels began.  Rape is being used as a tactic to humiliate and dehumanize the Congolese people and force them into submission.

Most men are afraid of the social stigma attached to the homosexual act and fail to report rape or sexual abuse.  Most that do have suffered extreme abuse, including castration and assault leading to continued and severe bleeding.  Many men would rather die than report rape and some have.

Brandi Walker, aid worker at a local hospital, said, “Everywhere we go, people say men are getting raped, too.”

Male rape cases are greatly less in number than female rape cases but aid workers say it is a lot harder for men to recover.  According to Waker, a man’s identity is too connected to power and control.

“I’m laughed at. The people in my village say: ‘You’re no longer a man. Those people in the bush made you their wife,'” said one survivor.

Women for Women International, an aid organization based in Washington, focuses on how devastating rape is to society.  The organization trains top police and military officials.  They are learning how to prevent rape under their command.

“While we are an organization that values investment in women, you have to engage larger communities,” says Lyric Thompson, policy analyst at Women for Women. “In many places we work, the community leaders are men, so we use men’s position of influence. Our program in Congo is a model for other programs. It involves a huge paradigm shift from approaching men as the perpetrators – the enemy – to engaging them as allies; as fathers, sons, brothers.”

Last year the rape epidemic seemed to be easing but that has since disappeared.  Between 50,000 and 100,000 women have been raped in the past decade of conflict.

For more information, please see:

Ms. Magazine – Rape of Men Used as Weapon of War in Congo – 06 August 2009

VOA – Clinton Says DRC ‘Worst Example of Man’s Inhumanity to Women’ – 06 August 2009

NY Times – Symbol of Unhealed Congo: Male Rape Victims – 04 August 2009

Christian Science Monitor – Congo: Confronting Rape as a Weapon of War – 02 August 2009